If Anyone Can Do the Job, Pietersen Can

Kevin Pietersen and moderation have never gone hand in hand. Just as the flamingo and the switch-hit are inherent with risk, so his appointment as England captain has the faintly unsettling feel of a stab in the dark. No doubt the usual nouns and adjectives will be thrown in his direction – a mercenary and an opportunist, brash and selfish – but for those concerned about England's closed-shop tendencies, Pietersen may actually stand for the best of both worlds: a player who already has the respect of the dressing-room and is sufficiently unEnglish to sweep it clean with a new broom.

Successful English captains have usually broken a mold or two. Douglas Jardine endangered diplomatic relations. Len Hutton was a professional in an era of amateurs. Ray Illingworth suffered no fool. Tony Greig won in India after embracing its differences. Mike Brearley used his 'degree in people' to fire up Ian Botham. Nasser Hussain shook the English game out of its complacency. Michael Vaughan elevated his side to Ashes winners. Whether Pietersen succeeds or not may depend on his willingness to be his own man.

Scoffing is only allowed if you can come up with a plausible alternative. Andrew Strauss? Not part of the one-day team. Paul Collingwood? Still too tenuous a member of the Test side, despite his Edgbaston heroics. Alastair Cook? Too young. Rob Key? Too much of an outsider with the Ashes just a year away. Anyone else? Sadly, no. Since England wanted to unite the Test and one-day jobs, it had to be Pietersen.

For once, the move by the selectors may be shrewder than we imagine. Pietersen led the revolt over the board's reluctance to allow them to dip their fingers in the IPL's treasure chest, and there has been talk of dissatisfaction over his central contract. By handing him the keys to English cricket's highest office, the England and Wales Cricket Board are wafting the whiff of power under his nose. "He can be as fragile and insecure as the rest of us deep down," wrote Ashley Giles in Pietersen's autobiography. Maybe, just maybe, the appointment will make him feel as loved as he felt when he hit that hundred at Lord's three weeks ago.

There are concerns, but then this is English cricket. How will his occasional gaucheness go down with his peers? How – as Duncan Fletcher pointed out on this website a few weeks ago – will he be able to preach responsibility if he has just hit his second ball straight up in the air, as he did in the seminal one-dayer against New Zealand at The Oval? Will his batting be affected by a job that knocks a few runs off the average of all but the toughest?

The truth is we just don't know. All we can go on is his response to pressure in the past, and in that respect he has few equals: an average of 151 in the 4-1 one-day mauling in South Africa; a pair of fifties on Test debut against Australia at Lord's; an Ashes-clinching 158 not out at The Oval; and a Test century at the first time of asking against the South Africans. Point to his carelessness on 94 the other day if you must, but remember he's human too.

One last thought. Beyond the ear-studs, the dead mongoose that once lived on his head, the celebrity wife and the endorsements, lies as astute a cricket brain as this dressing room possesses. "KP is like a sponge," said Fletcher's former assistant Matthew Maynard. "Always soaking up information and never resting on his laurels." He will have a lot more to soak up now. But if anyone can do it, Pietersen can.